Businesses Without Power for Weeks in East Stroudsburg

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EAST STROUDSBURG -- A deadly crash at the end of July ended up knocking out power to a building in Monroe County. Since then, the people who rent space in the property in East Stroudsburg have been without power.

They've been forced to use generators for weeks.

Business owners in East Stroudsburg are tired of starting their day by powering up four different generators just to turn on the lights.

It's been more than two weeks since a fatal crash along Route 209 knocked out power to their entire building.

The owner of the building says it could be weeks before it's turned back on.

"Every day we have to run on generator power. Our day starts by getting the generators set up, making sure they're gassed up," said business owner Attikus Davis.

Davis powers up four generators that eat up $50 in gas a day and runs wires to the breakers to open his accounting business, a PennDOT title and tag shop, Nationwide Insurance, and a FedEx shipping center.

Sharon Sharma stopped in to get her son learner's permit information and didn't realize the ordeal these businesses are going through.

"Yeah, a weird smell, like gas, but I had no idea it was running on generator. I was surprised," said Sharma.

The building's owner tells Newswatch 16 he's waiting on the insurance company and his contractors to work out cost issues before doing any repairs. It's frustrating for Davis who's forced to pay for all this out of pocket.

"The fact is, he's waiting to get the money from the insurance company to do the work, when he should do the work and then be reimbursed," said Davis.

The owner of these businesses has been forced to cut his hours while operating off of generators and has temporarily laid off two employees, not knowing how long this could last.

"That's horrible. This should have been fixed already, and to hear that people have been laid off, that's just, it's not right," said Lisa Rodriguez of East Stroudsburg.

The building's owner tells Newswatch 16 the estimates to fix the damage are between $15,000 and $18,000 dollars. It's A price business owners here hope someone pays, and soon.

"We'd like to see business as normal. We'd like to come in one day and just flip a switch and the lights come on," said Davis.

The building's owner is located in New York and has only owned the building off Route 209 in East Stroudsburg for about four months. He told Newswatch 16 that power may be restored in the next couple of weeks, but he made no promises.

As for the businesses, they say insurance should reimburse them for much of their losses.

1 Comment

JK

So sad. Business maowners – who never want to pay for anything. Insurance crampanies – who never want to pay for anything, and last but for sure not least are the scamlords – who never want to pay for anything. All three always want somebody else (consumers, employees, tenants anyone) to assume payment for what they themselves are contractually liable. They know if they play this waiting game someone else will get impatient and do the repairs themselves. How nice that the owners will get reimbursed from their insurance companies and come out ahead (not having employees to pay.) Tragic that people had to lose their jobs because of this. I’m betting they didn’t earn 15 -18k per year (the stated cost of repairs.)